The Hands of God

[This is Chapter 44 of my new book The Apostles’ Doctrine, due out late this fall.]

The elect, the remnant in the last days, repented of their sins. They forsook their selfish ways. And they walked in God’s faith like the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles of old. And the elect for these latter days became particular members of the body of Christ. And they grew to become the hands of God—God’s very own hands—hands that are destined to be laid upon a sick and dying earth.

To fully grasp the depth of this the doctrine of the laying on of hands, we first must see things through God’s eyes, the way He sees them. For He sees it through the lens of His purpose, which He has embedded in the pages of the Scriptures of Truth. Knowledge of His purpose is the key that unlocks every good door that He desires us to open. Believing in His purpose casts light on the incomparable calling of the “hands of God.”

It Is All About the Creator’s Purpose

All spiritual roads lead us back to God’s purpose. For His purpose is the glue that holds the meanderings of men’s feet steadfast on the paths of righteousness. Believing in His purpose gives our lives meaning. And when life goes sideways, as it will do, we can rest in the knowledge that it is all part of the plan to fulfill His purpose.

And this is His eternal purpose: God is reproducing Himself in human beings. He is in the process of multiplying Himself and planting His Spirit of Love throughout the universe. It is the reproduction of agape love, pure and simple. And He will do it through the body of Christ—you and I—if so be that we have surrendered to His plan and purpose. Nothing else can give our lives true meaning. He is Love and His desire to reproduce Himself in and through us is incomprehensible grace. There is really nothing else of any value in heaven or earth to compare to this kind of Love. For God-Love is the seed of all things and the harvest of all things.

And God has poured it all into His Son. It is all there. The Son is our chance to shine as we have given up our desires for vain self- glory and have put on the mind of Christ, who is the Seed-Son. We are created for His pleasure, and it pleases Him to expand His nature of Love using us as the medium. This is the theme of my 2017 book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect [1]. He is sovereign; He calls the shots. He works all things out according to His plan and purpose.

When we see things through the eyes of His purpose, then we will comprehend how such a grand Spirit of Love needs us His people, as we need Him. He needs us to be the channels of His love to those in need. And we need His agape love flowing down and through us to give our lives fulfillment and meaning. “We love God because He first loved us and gave Himself for us.” God is that Spirit of Love who needs a body of people to love through. And yes, He wants to be loved and appreciated just like we do.

Why He Created an Elect

 Consequently, to fulfill His purpose, He has created and fore-ordained certain individuals, who are predestined to respond fully to the calling and election He has placed on them. He has left nothing to chance. He will make it happen. He cannot fail. If He has called and chosen you, you will respond, even when it looks to natural man’s eyes like you are resisting Him, for your names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. It is a done deal; we just have to be Hit witness through acting on knowledge of His plan.

He calls these people His elect, His chosen ones, His remnant. They are alive today, but dead to themselves, and the new life inside their hearts is the life of Christ reproduced again, a brilliant seedling bursting through the sullen earth, growing and living by the faith of the Son of God (Rom. 8: 18-33; II Cor. 3: 18; Col. 1: 27).

The Creator has given to His chosen ones the heart and ability to see these things of which we speak—to realize that they are His corporate body, His literal torso, legs, arms, and His hands. For He needs hands to show mercy and love to those entering into His Kingdom. He needs hands to bless and guide others out of the pervading darkness. Without hands it is difficult to lay foundations to physical as well as spiritual buildings—skills needed during the reconstruction of this world after Great Tribulation and His return to His throne.

When we begin to see things through God’s eyes, we will see that we, the body of Christ, hold a special place in the King’s heart. For He will choose certain members of His body to be His hands, chosen for a special calling. For He will place His hands upon people to heal them and bless them, much the same way that Christ sent forth His disciples out two by two.

He said to them, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” (John 14: 12). How could we ever do anything greater than raising the dead? Their deeds will be greater, for they will be more numerous. Because it is the time of the harvest, thousands of the sons of God will do the same works that Christ did. For at that time their hands will be Christ’s hands. They will do the acts of Christ because Christ’s Spirit will be fully formed in them.

It is through this promise of the “manifestation of the sons of God” that the purpose of God will be fulfilled (Rom. 8: 19). His Life, Love and Essence will be multiplied, for He will have reproduced Himself in His elect for the last days. They will come right on time. That time is now.

Thousands of His elect will lay the “hands of God” on the peoples of this world, and by the Spirit of Christ within them, they will heal the nations as they herald the coming of the Kingdom of God. God will lay His hands on this sick world, and He will heal it on an international level.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[1] A trade paperback copy of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect is available—free with free shipping. Just send your mailing address in the USA to wayneman5@hotmail.com  Please mention the book by name.

 

Re: The Laying on of Hands–It’s Not What You Think

[The following are two chapters from my new book in progress]

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 The Common Concept of the Laying on of Hands

 “In Christianity, the laying on of hands (Greek: cheirotonia – χειροτονία, literally, “laying-on of hands”) is both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings, and ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers, along with a variety of other church sacraments and holy ceremonies.

In the New Testament the laying on of hands was associated with Christ healing the sick (Luke 4:40) and after his ascension, the receiving of the Holy Spirit (See Acts 8:14–19). Initially the Apostles laid hands on new believers as well as believers. (See Acts 6:5–6). In  the early church, the practice continued and is  still used  in  a wide variety of church ceremo nies, such as during confirmation” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_laying_on_of_hands).

This is a typical encyclopedia rendering of this doctrine. They all say about the same thing. But, really, is that all there is? Surely not. It has always been my experience that whatever churchianity teaches on a biblical subject, the whole truth is not in it. They clothed their half-truths in sheep’s clothing, warm, white and self-assured. But inwardly, those half-truths lead His people astray. This is not to say that all of the clergy nor all of the laity are guilty of this. For many are very sincere and are searching for the truth.

Nevertheless, now that man’s understanding of this topic has been broached, let us see where the Spirit of Truth wants to take us concerning the laying on of hands. Do we really think that the early apostles went for all of the formalized mumbo-jumbo of Pharisaical Judaism? And since there is nothing new under the sun, and since Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, should we His followers today acquiesce to what mainstream churchianity says about the laying on of hands? Do we honestly believe that the Holy Spirit can be conjured up at will by our words and our hands—hands, defiled by formalized religious practices (Isa. 1: 11-18). The sin-soiled hands of the clergy are laid upon the heads of the little lambs. May God lift us up to see this teaching as He sees it, according to His word.

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 Isaiah’s Prescient Preface to the Doctrine of Laying on of Hands

Before we can get to the deeper levels of understanding concerning the “laying on of hands,” we must examine why man’s attempt to employ this teaching falls woefully short. We look to Isaiah 1 for answers. It goes to the root of the problem.

First, as with all of the prophets, it is the Spirit of our Savior who speaks through Isaiah. Understanding this is paramount to receiving more revelatory truth. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Pet. 1: 21; I Pet. 1: 11). And because it is the Spirit of Christ ministering through the words that the prophet Isaiah penned down, we His body  can receive understanding from Christ Himself.

Isaiah 1 is a vision in which Yahweh laments for His people who had rebelled against Him. He says that even dumb animals know who feeds them and where to go to get that feed. “But Israel does not know, My people do not consider (1: 1-3).

Isaiah 1 is a cautionary tale that glimpses into the heart of a people and presciently instructs you and me to not do what they did. It speaks down through the centuries to us “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

The Sickness

The Spirit likens their rebellion to a physical sickness. The whole nation is sick because “they have forsaken Yahweh.” And the Spirit describes this sickness: “The whole head is sick.” The mind of the leaders and the people is eaten up with corrupt thoughts. “The whole heart is faint.” The very core and center of the people is weakened and puny because of self-centeredness. “The sole of the foot even to the head, there is not soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores…” And they have not been given medical aid to bind up those wounds (vs. 4-6). This extended metaphor tells us that the sickness of His people is complete. The whole nation has contracted this illness. What illness could infect the entire nation?

He reveals the grave spiritual sickness in one statement: “Ah sinful nation” (v. 4). The sin nature was contracted at birth. It is the root and core of why His people have rebelled against Him. The Spirit is saying, “Because of your sin, ‘your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence’ [sound familiar?] (v. 7). And if it were not for ‘a very small remnant, we should have been Sodom…’ (v. 9).

Lifeless Religious Liturgies

The whole nation is sick in sin. And then in the very next breath, the Spirit of Christ lays it out there, exposing the phony, lifeless, futile religious liturgies that both the clergy and laity participated in under the old testament law: animal sacrifice, the vain oblations, the incense, the burnt offerings, the Sabbaths, and the solemn assemblies. He calls all of these actions of 760 B.C. temple worship “iniquity.” It troubles Him. He hates all of this (vs. 11-14).

And echoing down through the centuries, His Spirit still calls the religious liturgies practiced today “iniquity.” That would include the laying on of hands as seen in the encyclopedia article above.

Why does He call it iniquity? Because the priests and people are still sinning. The pastors tell the flock of churchgoers that they cannot live without sinning. Therefore, their worship is soiled and tainted and unacceptable because their hearts are soiled with sin. “Ah sinful nation” still applies. Only the remnant in Isaiah’s day had changed their ways and repented and walked in the faith, believing that His Spirit can and does live in them. In Isaiah’s day, the names and exploits of the remnant were immortalized in the pages of the Bible. Today His remnant will fulfill and dramatize those illustrious pages of scripture.

Christ Gets Angry

And so it is today. The Spirit of Christ that spoke through Isaiah continues to speak to us because our nation has provoked Him to anger (v. 4). Christ gets angry? Yes. Just think: money changers at the temple, tables turned over, sharp rebukes flying through the air. I can see Him rebuking today’s televangelists, who preach the prosperity doctrine. Send us your money, they say, and God will multiply more money coming back to you. Sow the seed of faith by giving us your money and you will harvest 100 fold. What a lie! What an abomination! They are nothing more than modern day money changers. Where is the outcry from the pulpits? Why do the sheep get sheared so blatantly without even a word of protest?

So, yes, I believe that Christ would be rebuking the religious leaders of today the way He rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees 2,000 years ago. He said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.” Remember that these are the most powerful religious leaders of that time and place. They were the chief priests and rabbis with the power of life and death over the laity. And Christ said that they are the sons of the devil. The devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8: 44). Wow. You talking about fearless.

And so, the Spirit still is speaking: The prosperity doctrine is a false doctrine from the devil. It cheapens the beauty of God’s grace in giving us the true law of harvest—but they pervert it, saying that you can receive financial blessings by “sowing” seed money into their ministry. That is a lie from the father of all lies! And it is a horrible deception that has gone out all over the world. And these false teachers will turn right around and lay their hands on the lambs of God and pronounce great things for them as they become “partners” in the deception. Can we now see how the devil perverts things like the laying on of hands? No wonder God is angry. There is no justice in the land while deceit and lies run rampant.

It Is Always about the Sin

It is sin that we are talking about. Christ always brought up sin in the conversation. And He would today, just like He did in Isaiah’s day. He changes not. He would ask our sinful nation today, Why are you still in sin? Why are you still sinning? I am manifested to take away your sins, and in Me there is no sin (I John 3: 5). ]

Because Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, He would say to the sinful nation today: “You say that you are washed in My blood. And yet you still break My Ten Commandments. You say that you are following Me, and yet you hide secret desires that will destroy you. You say you are born again, and have been baptized, and have joined a church, but you are still struggling with sins that yield guilty thoughts and a troubled conscience.

“Something is wrong in your thinking. For you say that the Bible is the word of God and that you believe every word of it, and yet you do the opposite of what my word says to do. And you say, Well, my pastor says that no one can keep the law. Nobody’s perfect; everyone sins.

“But you do err, for you neither know the scriptures nor the power of God. Either My blood is powerful enough to cleanse you from all sins along with your sin nature, or it is not. And you have forgotten that with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. All things.

“So bring no more of those solemn ceremonies and ecstatic praises and rituals and traditions and baptisms and laying on of hands, for sin still stains the hearts of both the pastors and their flocks. ‘When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you…when you make many prayers, I will not hear…’ But My hand is still stretched out. ‘Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (1: 16-18).

“If you repent, you may join My remnant, My elect, My chosen. They will walk in the light of Love. I am the Seed and they are the harvest. They will restore all things and help usher in the kingdom of God. And they will rule and reign with Me. They repented of their sins and walked in faith, and as the body of Christ, they became the hands of God—hands destined to be laid upon a sick and dying earth.

[These are the opening chapters of the “Laying on of Hands” doctrine. It is not what we have been lead to believe it is. It is far more elevated, created in the heart of God for astounding results. These chapters are excerpts from my new book coming out, hopefully this fall. We wait on the Spirit, for without Him I cannot write this. It is called The Apostles’ Doctrine. Its contents illuminate our path to nothing less than perfection, which is spiritual maturity. Like the other books that I have written for the elect, this book is seminal for the harvest of His manifested sons and daughters. I highly recommend that you first read The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect, available to you free with free shipping. All I need is your mailing address sent to my email… wayneman5@hotmail.com  I will advise as to when The Apostles’ Doctrine is finished and published. It is free with free shipping, as well.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock ]

The Milk of the Word Is Not Milk Toast

The first principles of Christ’s teachings is the milk of the word of God. But that does not mean that its precepts are not ground-breaking and earth shattering. And heart-rending, too.

These Foundational Principles of His Teachings Are Powerful

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4: 12 NKJV). Christ’s doctrine about repentance will cut us to our very spiritual core, exposing what we are really thinking about God and what our intentions are on the stage of life.

Just because these first principles are the milk and not the meat of the word and are to become our very foundation upon which to build the temple of God, we should not take them lightly. For “repentance from sin” will shake us to our core. It will break our hearts, minds, and our wills. It will evoke a complete upheaval of the human heart.

It will provoke us to question whether we really can follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Christ admonishes us to “count the cost” of discipleship. And He asks us this question, “Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt. 20: 22). This was not the water baptism of John but rather the baptism into His death that Paul speaks of in Romans 6: 3-6. And, yes, Christ answers His own questions to us with a resounding prophecy: “You shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” (v. 23).

For repentance from sin is a complete reversal of the old  life’s ways and means. Instead of depending on our own wits and talents to gain advantage in the game of this earthly existence, we now depend on the Creator’s sustenance from the new Spirit He has ignited in us.

Of course, our new life in Him is really His creation. He restores us day by day back into His heart. We are His clay as He exhales the fire of His lungs into our breathing moments, thus transforming us into a new creation, created in true righteousness and holiness.

And God does have greatness in store for us His children–things so grand and glorious that, like the apostle Paul said, “it is unlawful for a man to utter” (II Cor. 12: 2-4). These are heavenly things that the human eye has not seen, “nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him” (I Cor. 2: 9). These things will be the meat, the spiritual food that He will feed us when we get the first principles fully operating in our lives. This is one of the major problems in Christianity today. New followers want to jump into the book of Revelation or visions or prophecy or the heavenlies while they are still struggling with repentance from dead works in their lives.

First, we must get strong enough in our walk and get mature enough in order to be able to glimpse those rare, glorious, spiritual things that He has prepared for us. Prepared for whom? “For them that love Him.”

So How Do We Love Him?

Let’s get it from our Savior’s own lips. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14: 15, 23). And one of His commands to us is “Repent of sin.” We show our love for Him by obeying Him. We must hear His sayings and do them. Really do them. And the first thing is to repent from sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments.

Someone will say, Well, no one can do that. True, because that’s the way God designed it. No human in their earthly strength can keep the law successfully. He made it this way in hope that we would turn to the Savior and seek forgiveness. For left to our own devices, eventually man surely will see the futility of his selfish ways and seek to find a place of repentance, won’t he?

Repentance will be realized when brokenhearted man believes the word concerning God’s sacrifice for sin–His Son. Not just believe that Jesus of Nazareth died for mankind’s sins some 2,000 years ago, but believe that we must be immersed spiritually into Christ’s death and by faith in His resurrection, we now walk in a “newness of life.” This is done by faith, believing that He now lives in our hearts. We rise with Christ by faith (the second principle of Christ’s doctrine). Christ’s Spirit now is living within.

Many of you have experienced this wonderful spiritual reality. Praise God for you. Yet some may wonder, Why all the details about repentance? Why is it necessary to study all this out?

The answer is this. If we love Christ, we will obey His command: “Feed my lambs…Feed My sheep…Feed My sheep (John 21: 15-17). We  need to be rooted and grounded in these teachings in order to be able to teach them to others coming into the church, the body of Christ. That’s it, pure and simple. Can we explain it and teach this miracle of transformation in our lives to others? When we can, then He will feed us with a banquet fit for kings and queens. HalleluYah!       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is part of Chapter 10 of my new book The Apostles’ Doctrine due to be published later this fall. I will announce on this blog its arrival and how you can receive your free copy (with free shipping). It is seminal and proper spiritual food for the lambs and sheep of His pasture. Be sure to subscribe and may our Father bless all of you.]